BURGLAR!
by the real Violet Parr
Summary: I don't have enough to do, apparently. Just a little oneshot based off the movie, when Troy goes to apologize to Gabriella. I think it's funny. No flaming please!


Okay, so I was watching HSM at about 9 PM and it was at the part where Troy is apologizing and I thought (because I'm a bit cynical) "What if someone had seen him, assumed he was a burglar, and called the police on him?" Don't get me wrong, I love that scene, but I thought it'd be funny if it did happen. So I wrote this. Please don't flame me.

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Troy felt awful about the things he'd said the day before. He knew he hadn't meant any of it, and he was still smarting from the betrayal of his so-called friends. While he knew there wasn't any way to change the things he'd said, there was something he could do: apologize.

_I just hope Gabriella will listen to me,_ he thought nervously as he turned into her driveway.

He knocked softly on the front door and tried to think of a good way to explain. _Gabriella, I didn't mean any of what I said...especially the part about you not being important. Because you are - more than you'll ever know..._

Right in the middle of his mental preparation, the door opened. It wasn't Gabriella, it was an woman whom he assumed to be her mother.

"Ah - Ms. Montez, I'm Troy Bolton."

"Oh, Troy! Gabriella..." Ms. Montez stepped backward into the house and appeared to be about to call her daughter down, but then turned back to Troy. "...is kind of busy with homework and such, so now's not really a good time..."

"I made a mistake, Ms. Montez, and I would really like to let Gabriella know that," broke in Troy. "Could you tell her that I came by to see her?"

Ms. Montez nodded. "I will - Troy." She smiled and added, "Goodnight."

"Good night. Thank you." Troy walked down Gabriella's driveway, then he got an idea.

Letting himself into her backyard by the white gate adjacent to the house, Troy pulled out his cell phone and called Gabriella's number. After a few rings, a soft voice answered, "Hello?"

"What you heard the other day, none of that is true. I was sick of my friends riding me about singing with you, so I said things I knew would shut them up. I didn't mean any of it!"

Gabriella's room light shone on the balcony above Troy's head. "You sounded pretty convincing to me," she replied.

Growing desperate, Troy said, "Listen, the guy you met on vacation is way more me than the guy who said those stupid things."

"Troy, the whole singing thing is making the school wack. You said so yourself, everyone's treating you differently because of it."

As she talked, Troy slipped over to one of the posts holding the balcony up and began to shinny up it. Surprisingly, he found he could talk as well as climb. "Maybe that's because I don't want to be 'the basketball guy' anymore. If they can't handle it, it's not my problem; it's theirs."

"How about your dad?" Gabriella still sounded unconvinced.

"And it's not about my dad. This is about how I feel, and I'm not letting the team down. They let me down." Now he was finally on her balcony, and he could see her, leaning on her bedpost with her back to him. "So I'm gonna sing. What about you?"

"I don't know, Troy."

"Well, you need to say yes, because I've brought you something."

She sounded confused. "What do you mean?"

"Turn around." Troy crossed his fingers and prayed that this wasn't a mistake.

She did, and saw him standing there. Opening the door, she looked uncertainly at him.

Troy sang, "This could be the start of something new - it feels so right to be here with you, oh - and now, lookin' in your eyes, I feel in my heart - the start of something..." He spoke the last word. "New." Holding up the music for "Breaking Free", he continued, "It's a pairs audition."

Gabriella nodded and reached out to take the sheet from him. She stepped out a bit further onto the balcony, and he followed, looking over her shoulder. Turning her head, she smiled at him, and Troy knew in that moment he was forgiven. A warm feeling spread through him as her hand slipped into his.

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Old Mrs. Green, the Montez's next-door neighbor, was watching their house from her window as this went on. She saw Troy sneaking through the backyard and climbing up onto the balcony, and because the old woman was a bit nearsighted, she couldn't see who it was. Besides being nearsighted, she was also a bit paranoid; thus she screamed "BURGLAR!" and grabbed for the phone. Dialing 9-1-1 in a panic, she screeched into the receiver, "HELP! BURGLAR! HELP!"

The poor policeman on the other end was quite started; he wasn't used to old ladies screaming into the phone so late at night. "Er...ma'am, just calm down and talk slowly. Where do you live?"

Finally he managed to extract her address from the hysterical Mrs. Green, and two police cars were soon streaking out of the station toward Oak Street (where the Montezes and Mrs. Green lived), sirens blaring into the still night.

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"You know the world can see us in a way that's different than who we are," sang Troy and Gabriella in unison. They were rehearsing "Breaking Free" together, and it was just like it had always been between them, as if the afternoon before had never happened.

"You - you sounded really good," said Troy nervously when they'd finished.

Gabriella smiled. "Thanks. So did you, Troy."

Neither of them had noticed that Troy's arm had snaked gently around Gabriella's waist, and their faces were now inches away from each other. His bright blue eyes gazed into her brown ones for a long moment before he leaned down toward her.

But before their lips met they heard sirens approaching the house, growing so loud that they appeared to be heading straight for the house. Then Gabriella heard cars pulling into their driveway, and a loud knocking on the front door. She reluctantly pulled herself out of Troy's arms and ran downstairs, with him on her heels - only to find a troupe of policemen on the doorstep talking to her mother.

"What..." began Gabriella in astonishment.

Ms. Montez appeared to be about to say something to explain the strange circumstances, but suddenly an old lady pushed past the police and screeched, "That's him, officer! That's the burglar!" She pointed accusingly at Troy.

"Oh no," whispered Gabriella. Poor Troy's eyes were as wide as dinner plates, and he looked like a deer caught in a car's headlights on the highway. She quickly grabbed his head just in case he decided to make a break for it before this was all sorted out. "Uh, Mrs. Green, Troy's not a burglar, he's my friend."

"Then what was he doing sneaking around in your backyard like a no-good common thief?" snarled the old woman. "I saw him myself! Why didn't he just come to the door like a normal person would?"

After a few minutes the police and Ms. Montez managed to calm Mrs. Green down and convince her that Troy was not a burglar. Even so, she went home in a huff and for the next week watched the Montez's house like a hawk.

The police left, and Ms. Montez suggested that perhaps Troy should leave because it was getting late and, after all, they did have school tomorrow.

"Um...bye." said Gabriella shyly.

"Yeah," replied Troy. Gabriella could sense that he wanted to say something to her but was too shy to say it around her mother. "Uh, Mom..."

"Alright, I get the hint." Ms. Montez smiled with amusement and left the two teenagers alone.

Troy smiled awkwardly. "Um, so I'm forgiven, right, Gabs?"

Smiling and flushing with pleasure at the nickname, Gabriella nodded. "Of course you are." She walked over to him and kissed his cheek gently. "See you tomorrow."

Shocked, Troy found himself unable to do anything but walk out of the house with his hand over his cheek and a goofy smile on his face. Apologizing had turned out to be a very good idea indeed.

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It's quite fluffy, I know. I like that kind of thing. Reviews are nice.


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